Hi Jana:
I've never worked on the show, but one of my students was cast as Dorothy
and a huge brouhaha ensued. This was at the large city high school here in
Albany and they had announced that casting would be color blind as was their
policy for other shows they had done. Everyone was stunned when my student,
a lovely Italian girl with a big honkin' voice, was cast. Parents marched,
petitioned, politicians spewed sound bytes, there was a walk-out at the
school, major activists became involved and things became rather ugly. My 16
year old student was called at home by angry parents who threatened her with
physical harm if she didn't step down. She was actually spat on at school.
The stand of the school, which they refused to reverse, was that my student
was simply the best who auditioned and they had followed policy.
So I guess my only caveat would be to be very clear about your casting
policy before auditions begin. You don't want to have to deal with
misunderstandings and hurt feelings if turns out that the perfect person for
the Michael Jackson role is an Irish American lad from Boston. Not that what
happened here would definitely happen in Nebraska or elsewhere, but that
fact the reaction here was as extreme as it was makes me want to suggest
absolute clarity of policy.
It's a fun show, I wish I had more upbeat suggestions for you. I'm sure
you'll have a blast!
Laura
-----Original Message-----
From: jjh [mailto:jjh@n...]
By the way, my questions about The Wiz are still out there. Help! I need
advice!
Jana
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